Juicy Fruit (Mtume song)
"Juicy Fruit" is a song written by James Mtume and released as the lead-off single from Mtume's third album, also titled Juicy Fruit. It features lead vocals by Tawatha Agee. The mid-tempo song is Mtume's most well-known, proving enormously successful on R&B radio stations when first released.
| "Juicy Fruit" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Single by Mtume | ||||
| from the album Juicy Fruit | ||||
| Released | May 1983 | |||
| Recorded | 1982 | |||
| Genre | ||||
| Length | 6:00 (album version) 4:32 (UK album edit) 3:44 (7-inch edit) 5:55 (12-inch vocal version) 7:03 (12-inch "fruity instrumental mix") | |||
| Label | Epic | |||
| Songwriter(s) | James Mtume | |||
| Producer(s) | James Mtume | |||
| Mtume singles chronology | ||||
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The song reached number one on the Billboard Hot R&B Singles chart on June 4, 1983, and remained there for eight weeks. Its success on the Billboard Pop Singles chart, however, was more modest, reaching number 45. It was ranked at number 15 among the "Tracks of the Year" for 1983 by NME. Though it never reached the top 40, the single was certified as selling one million copies on July 25, 1983. The song's video had different lyrics, where they replaced "You can lick me everywhere" with "Candy kisses everywhere".
The single itself would become the inspiration for another act that would take the name from the song, Juicy, whose single "Sugar Free" was considered an answer to "Juicy Fruit" and itself the basis for being used as sampled backgrounds on numerous songs.